Pro-Tour "lite?"

[bretcopsey]

I finally began tearing into my 51 Chevy two days ago. The plans call for a second gen Camaro front clip, 4 wheel disc, 17 wheels, small block and five speed. I'm shooting to do this as cheaply and quickly as possible so it can become my daily commuter-then I can get back to the Camaro!!

[69rs]

Cool for sure, but cheaply and quickly? Good luck and show us pics of the progress!

[jy211]

Love that series of truck...now take it to the blasters...or atleast flat black it! :rotfl:

[bretcopsey]

"cheaply and quickly" being relative terms...

I don't plan to spend as much on the truck as I do the Camaro. As for taking it to the blasters, as soon as the Camaro clip is installed that is where it's heading next.

I'm thinking of naming this truck "SS" because when I brought it home the wife said it looked like the Sanfor and Sons truck!!:razz:

There are one or two more pics here:

http://www.cardomain.com/ride/2285825

[bretcopsey]

UPDATE

Nothing major, but I have made some progress on rust removal and I'm in the middle of the Camaro clip swap now. Check the link for the cardomain page to see more.

[protouring70]

I love the 5 windows. Is there a company that makes aftermarket frames ready to go for these trucks!!!!!

[bretcopsey]

There are several companies making front clip replacements as well as full frame replacements. The problem is that they are generally 'street rod' oriented systems, using Mustang II components. That is not the route I plan to take with this project.

[bretcopsey]

Knocking the dust off of this one....

I won't go into all of the details but to say that life threw some other priorities at me after I got this started. I have made some progress since my last update, but apparently Car Domain reformatted their site so I'm just going to post some pics within the thread. It seems there are a lot more high end builds on this site than there were a few years ago, so I hope this isn't too mundane.

This is the way the truck sat the day it came home.

[bretcopsey]

I tore the front sheet metal off to get the remainder of the straight six and 4 speed out.

[bretcopsey]

I had to replace the driver side cowl panel, patch the pass side cowl vent area and several bullet holes as well as remove a "bit" of rust...

[bretcopsey]

Both cab corners were also replaced. I swapped the rear axle with the 8.2 from my Camaro and flipped it to mount on top of the leafs. I also grafted on a second gen Camaro front clip. The picture in the driveway shows ride height on a small set of 14" rollers (next post). Unfortunately, when I switched over to the 17x9.5 rims with 235 tires I found that I had mis-calculated the track width. Would have been OK if I didn't need to turn...

[bretcopsey]

This one dropped out of the post above.

[bretcopsey]

At this point I determined the clip would have to be re-done. I took it back off and sectioned the cross member 5" in order to get the track width where it needed to be. From there, custom motor mounts were required. I built these from stock small block mounts, the truck's inner drive shaft and some energy suspension bushings. I have lost the pics I took of the the frame being modified, so I'll get some more posted up soon. More to come....

[bretcopsey]

Engine mount tabs welded to crossmember, frame sectioned and welded to truck frame, boxing plates added under cab and transmission crossmember modified to mount T5 to original rails.

[bretcopsey]

The Camaro subframe was sectioned approximately 5", the draglink in the picture was tacked together just to move it around in the garage. I have a new draglink for an S10 which will account for the narrower track width.

[bretcopsey]

Engine in place. Modifying headers now. Long way to go yet!